Wrinkle predictions
New mathematical theory may explain patterns in fingerprints, raisins, and microlenses.
Keeping health care clean
Startup’s smart devices track hand-washing in hospitals to help reduce the spread of infection.
Parallelizing common algorithms
Researchers revamp a common “data structure” so that it will work with multicore chips.
Privacy challenges
Analysis: It’s surprisingly easy to identify individuals from credit-card metadata.
Qubits with staying power
Technique greatly extends duration of fragile quantum states, pointing toward practical quantum computers.
Decoding sugar addiction
Separate neural circuits control sugar cravings and healthy eating, researchers find.
Tasting light
Newly discovered taste receptors for hydrogen peroxide allow worms to indirectly detect light.
MIT researchers design tailored tissue adhesives
Glue can be modified for optimal performance in different types of diseased tissue.
Biology, driven by data
Newly tenured biological engineer Ernest Fraenkel goes where the numbers lead.
Is the medical match fair?
Study finds the demand for positions strongly influences medical residents’ salaries.
From fiction to science
Peter Reddien believes human stem cells could one day be regulated to replace aged, damaged, and missing tissues.
3 Questions: Dara Entekhabi on NASA’s soil-moisture mission
MIT professor is lead scientist on three-year mission to study how soil, water, and carbon interact.
Intrepid projects backed by Bose Grants
Five researchers embark on high-risk ventures, supported by Prof. Amar G. Bose Research Grants.
New analysis explains collagen’s force
Experiments and simulations show that adding or removing water makes the material push and pull.
3 Questions: Lydia Bourouiba on Ebola virus transmission
Research on disease transmission through aerosol droplets raises questions about Ebola’s spread.